Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 306 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘men,” said The Roughs of Richmond. 7 ‘‘Ah! from Tim. He’s off. Now, then, for The Roughs of Richmond |” Tne detective entered a small closet at one side. At the expiration of a few seconds he emerged in a completely altered attire and general ap- pearance so changed that it would have been difficult for his most intimate friends to pene- trate the masquerade, A thorough specimen of an habitual tippler, in black and seedy garments and wearing a high hat that had evidently been stood upon or kicked about in many a spree. Leaving the ency by a rear egress, he reeled off toward Virginia street, at once as- suming his role to perfection. CHAPTER VII. WEALTHY ERASTUS DE BINBOW. THE train bad just arrived from West Point. In the immediate surrounding of the Rich- mond and Danville depot there was consider- able bustle. Parties were boarding for Manchester; the throng from the cars, after a dusty ride, was hastening upward from the roaring waters of the James, into the city hazy with heat in the late bour of the afternoon. Foremost and prominent by his peculiar appearance, was a geutleman who was evident- ly a stranger, His hat was high and stiff; his coat, of blue, with brass buttons, flapped its tails like the wings of a swallow around his binder parts, From the front of bis figured white vest hung an enormous gold chain with a monstrous seal attached; above the vest bis stiff collar and showy necktie seemed to hold bis head on high with the carriage of a nabob. He glanced hither and thither. In one hand he carried a massive, gold-head- ed cane: in the other a small sachel with gleam- nig Wack reg of nickel-plate. e seemed rather to enjoy the prominence he was occasioning for himself, not attempting to avoid the jostling of those ina greater hurry than himself, ** Carriage, sir—carriage?” A line of whips protruded in his face at the little gate on the sun-hot flags. A chorus of newsboy yells greeted him; he half paused, glancing around upon all with a benign smile, ‘*No, I don’t want any carriage, and I don’t want any papers. But it’s the dustiest and dryest ride I’ve had for a time, I tell you. Hey, you, where can a man get a glass of cold beer to wet his thirsty throat with?” ““ How much will you give to know, mister?” ‘What! Am Iin Lunnon once more, where a man has to pay a shillin’ for asking the time ’ day! Get out, Rag-tag!” ‘“ Hi!” shouted a bootblack, with a broad grin. ‘‘ What's the matter with you, Bob-tail?” ‘* Hil” from another portion of the crowd of boys. ‘Dat yar man gwine to de co’vention!” a a negro lad, he cabmen and some of the recent travelers were laugbing and half pausing, the latter, to see what the cause of the merriment was at the gate, This ‘‘ cause ” now elevated his nose on bigh with a contemptuous sniff and proceeded along Virginia street. ‘*That’s a nice way to receive a gentleman in a strange city!” he exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by two men who stood beside the cooper-shop watching him furtively. wezin I help yer any?” interrogated one of these, as he came abreas ~ Where can I get a drink—that’s what I want to know,” he answered, somewhat pom- jously; adding: ‘If you will show me the tavern—ceuse I don’t see any round here—TI’]l set "em up.” ““Come on, then,” said the first man, with a sly wink to his companion. - The pair fell in alongside. And then it a red for the first to strike this stranger in Richmond that his company was not attired in consonance with the class of sesr to which he felt he himself belonged. ‘*My name’s Erastus de Binbow,” he an- nounced, with a flourish and a scrape of his throat, ‘‘ Whoare you two/—citizens of this hot town, eh?” » sa My name’s Sam York.” ** Mine’s Sam Lancaster.” ‘* Englishmen, os ve gods!” exclaimed De Bin- bow, with a cheerful'smile. ‘Yes, we’re coopers out o’ work. We was just eee @ where you saw us at a waitin’-fur a job.’ Binbow did not appear to notice the fact that if his two companions were Englishmen, they certainly had 1 pe wonderfully the pe- culiar Southern dial née that seems to have dropped into the untutored negro’s style of ex- pression rather than educating the negro to adopt the white man’s more correct speech. im glad to come across a couple of English- tus. ‘And maybe I can assist you, if you are out of work, as you say. And Pll doit,” slapping them simultaneously on their backs, familiarly. ‘‘ 1m somebody, I tell you. You'll hear from me soon; wait till the Chicago Convention is over—Ah!” and he closed one eye with a knowing expression. ‘‘ Money? Why, bless you, I swim init. But Isay—how much further to that grog-shop?” ‘** Not far,” coarsely laughed one. They conducted him to asaloon on Fourteenth street, reached after traversing the busy thor- oughfare of the warehouses. A bright and cheerful looking place, in which Erastus seemed to instantly feel himself at home. Mopping his brow with a great colored hand- kerchief, he advanced and pompously ordered: ‘Three beers! Ice cold! Double quick—for me and my friends here—Ah!” and he grasped the first that was set upon the counter, carryio it to his mouth with a rapidity that indicate bis thirst could hardly be a sham. The two men—the two Sams— exchanged glances again. ‘‘ Fill ’em up. More!” called Erastus, quickly swallowing his. And when he made away with the second glass, he wiped his lips in apparent good humor with himself and the world in general. ** That’s fine beer—” he began to say. But the proprietor’s voice just then shouted to one: ‘*Go on, now—git! Clear out of here!” Erastus and his quondam acquaintances turned to see what was the matter behind them. Into the bar had come reeling a dilapidated specimen of what once might have been a re- spectable man. That respectability had evidently departed long ago. e was then the picture of a whisky wreck. With one hand on the swinging door, he paused at the order to make himself scarce, and bis glance roved around the room to see if some- one there would not take pity on his want— liquor, evidently—and call to him to remain. _*Get out!” cried the barkeeper, a second time. “ Hold on—hold on.” It was Erastus de Binbow who interrupted the scene. ‘ The impecunious and battered bummer had struck the place at an opportune moment, Erastus was feeling very good-natured after his copious imbibing, and was on the point of ordering more of the beaded tipple when the entrance of the bummer transpir ‘Hold on,” he said. ‘‘ Give the fellow some- thing. Ill pay for it. I’ve got plenty of money —and nothing to do with it. Tl treat the poor fellow. Come, my wretched friend, and take something.” The barkeeper would have demurred to the abe rela tec of such a specimen of humanity at is counter; but one of the pseudo-coopers gave that personage a wink that meant volumes. A man with his pockets full of money, a man so green, a man like the aforesaid Erastus de Binbow, in short, ought to be humored to a pe, oti said the talismaniec wink. be bummer staggered to the counter, at the same time extending a dirty palm toward his new-found friend. “Me noble lord, AI ’onor you. You hare a hEnglishman, every hinch o’ you—shake!” and the dirty hand reached and grasped the hand of Erastus, over whose countenance beamed an- other of those worldly happy smiles. ‘““Say, don’t you believe any such stuff,” warned the barkeeper. ‘‘ He’s a-shoutin’ taffy at you by the jugful.” : * Believe what stuff?” “ Why, that be’s an Englishman.” ‘‘Oh, I can tell that he is by his speech, my friend. But no matter. Give us some more beer—fill em up—up high. Then I'll be on the move for the hotel.” ‘What hotel do yer want?’ asked one of the ms. ** Exchange.” ‘Then we kin show it to yer—can’t we, Sam?” to the other. ‘‘ Why, hof course we kin,” drawled the man, Broad was the smile on the face of Erastus, as he proceeded to drain his third glass. Ané he remarked to the barkeeper: “You see, when a true Englishman strikes a strange city, a kind Providence always pilots him to those of his own nationality. But, ah! it has been many years since I was in England; so long has it been that I have forgotten my own mother tongue—that is, 1 have forgotten that sweet style of talk which just now showed me that here, in this r fellow ”’—laying his hand patronizingly on the shoulder of the tramp —‘‘I saw one of my own countrymen in dis- tress, Drink, my friend—drink‘all you want” —as he noticed that the bummer held on fast to the bottle and glass that had been given him, notwithstanding the barkeeper had reached for it twice, **hI ’onor you, AI ’onor you, hI do,” almost sobbed the bummer, filling his glass peels. It was observed that altbough Erastus de Binbow had been a very loud and thirsty in- dividual, his capacity was not very great; for by the time he had swallowed his fourth glass of beer he was slightly aks “IT reckon I'll be getting up-town to the ress Shs sss sss sss hs sss i hotel,” he said, a little thickly, while there came’ over his face an expression something like that which, in the drinking man, indicates a sort of half-and-half between sickness and intoxica- tion. ‘“Take another beer,” suggested one of the Sams, producing a silver quarter, for which he had been hunting in the deep corner of his pants pocket for some time, ‘*' Yes, of course—another, landlord.” **hI ’onor you, Al ’onor you,” sobbed the bummer, who had begun to attract attention by his capacity for storing away tbe contents of a: whisky bottle. The bottle was then nearly empty, and still he clung to it. ‘‘ Let me pay the bill,” protested De Binbow, when he had taken two more beers with his companions, , | He opened his sachel and displayed a mass of greenbacks. The eyes of York and Lancaster fixed upon the moneyed contents with a hungry expres- sion which they could only conceal by averting their heads. * And now, my friends, if you'll call a hack and direct the driver to the Exchange,” said Erastus, moving unsteadily toward a chair into which he threw himself, ‘‘ ll pay that bill too, and be much obliged to you.” York hastened from the saloon, pausing, how- ever, to give his companion another of those winks which seemed to convey a deep meaning, A few minutes elapsed when Lancaster pro- posed another beer. Brastus assented to the treat after some ris A gling over the assertion which he made that his friends should cp eey for anything while he had his pockets stuffed with so much Spr “ Have it your own way, then,” yielded Lan- caster. ‘“‘Bring it to me. I'm tired,” said Erastus, with head rocking on his shoulders, and looking cross-eyed at the : | The bummer seemed to have succumbed at last and was sprawled out on the floor just be- yond the partition, where the curtains hid him from the view of otber customers who might enter, though not from the occasional glances of disgust flung that way by the barkeeper. Lancaster brought forward two beers. Tbe barkeeper stooped behind his counter to rinse a glass, With a lightning movement, and with his back toward Erastus, into the glass—something which he took at a’ pinch from his vest pocket. ‘‘There you are,” he said, handing the stran- ger his glass. “ An’ here’s the money—you pay for it,” handing the other a piece of silver as he spoke, Laneaster turned again to the bar to deposit the peer before drinking the beer. And if his movement had been quick in plac- ing something mysterious in the glass offered Erastus, no less quick was the action of the lat- ter in tipping the contents into the spittoon be- side the table. When Lancaster again came forward, Eras- tus was rie his lips and spitting lazily, as if his last drink did not taste so palatable. ‘* Where’s that back?’ he asked. ‘“‘ Be here in a minute.” And at that juncture a vebicle was heard to come rumbling up to the curb, where it ) before the saloon. CHAPTER VIII. THE ELECTRIC PISTOL AGAIN, YorE came sauntering in. Both York and Lancaster had seemed to en- dure the ordeal of beer-drinking with a wonder- ful staying capacity—or else they nad not drank at every treat called for by Erastus, probably disposing of the contents of the glasses in some sly manner. At all evens, they were both strictly sober. Erastus alone seemed to have suffered out of the trio—not counting the bummer, of course, ‘‘Here’s your hack,” York said, after an in- quiring glance at Lancaster, which was returned in a way that seemed to afford him some in- ward satisfaction, ‘‘ All right,” mumbled Erastus; ‘‘?m read for it, I tell you. Why,I believe I’m half- “Oh, no; you’re good for a dozen tipsy men yet, you are.” ws Come on!” urged Lancaster. He assisted the wealthy gentleman to his feet and toward the door, which York obligingly held open. “4 y, if it isn’t dark!” exclaimed Erastus bewilderedly, and halting on the pavement. “Yes; we've been inside there for a time, I tell you, and punished a heap of beer.” : ‘And (bic) are you tight, too?” ‘‘Oh, we never gets tight, we don’t!” ; “No, we're to it. Come on—get into the hack!” York was now holding open the door of the hack, But in that transient moment of a halt close to the door of the saloon on the outside, some- thing had transpired which bad entirely ea —_ ancaster dropped something . -~ NIGDoOOo (E(0) (E S) (G (o}